


Ames, Oklahoma

by frankiesin



Series: Ghost Towns [3]
Category: Bandom, Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1990s, Alternate Universe - Southern Gothic, Based on Unholyverse (kind of), Gen, Religion, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 23:23:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9520643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frankiesin/pseuds/frankiesin
Summary: Linda Ignarro, a preacher's daughter, decides to leave her home in Texas to pursue the supernatural with a man who saved her friend's life a year ago.(Part of the Poly Panic Unholyverse AU, which is a WIP)





	

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is a snippet from a larger series I'm going to be doing (I've already started it, there's just not enough to post yet). It's kind of a southern gothic take on the whole supernatural/monster hunting genre. 
> 
> Basically, I read Unholyverse on a plane a month ago and decided I wanted a Panic! at the Disco version. So. Here we go...

Linda Ignarro stood in her mother’s kitchen, staring at the phone and holding Jon Walker’s business card in her hand. She didn’t have any problems that she needed help with, she was just bored. Texas just didn’t hold her interest any more, now that she knew what kind of things were out there. What had happened was the most terrifying thing she’d ever experienced, but it was also the only time someone ever took her seriously.

 

She tapped in the number and held the phone to her ear, waiting. She had no idea if Jon would even pick up. It had been over a year. Linda had hunted spirits since she last saw Jon, and banished a vengeful spirit that was haunting a church organ. Her parents were starting to think she was a witch. Linda was a little afraid that they’d try to burn her. 

 

“This is Sisky, what can I help you with?” A male voice said through the phone. It was very obviously not Jon’s.

 

“Is Jon Walker there?” Linda asked. She tried to mask her accent, but was pretty sure she failed. Her accent was pretty thick. “I worked with him, about a year ago. I was wondering if I could get some assistance again.”

 

“What’s your name?” 

 

“Linda,” she said. “Linda Ignarro.”

 

“Okay, I’m gonna have Jon call you. If you don’t get a call from him in about thirty minutes, call me back,” Sisky said, and then hung up. Linda couldn’t tell if he was being rude, or if he was from the north like Jon. Northerners tended to be more brisk. Sometimes, Linda really hated it. 

 

She didn’t have anything to do, because she was afraid that if she walked away from the phone, Jon Walker would call the house phone and her father would pick up. He was home today, working on his next sermon in the home office on the other end of the house. He had a phone in there, and was super quick when it came to picking it up. He did it because he didn’t want boys calling the house to try and talk to Linda or one of her two sisters. Linda had to stay put so that she could get to Jon before her father did, because her father would hang up as soon as he heard a man’s voice on the line that he didn’t recognise. 

 

The phone rang, and Linda snatched it up before it could ring again. She held it close to her face, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. “Jon?”

 

“Linda?” It was Jon’s voice. 

 

Linda closed her eyes, calming herself down. Her father hadn’t answered first. She was in the clear. “Are you still hunting stuff?”

 

“Yeah, of course,” he said, cautiously. “Why? Is there something down there that you need help with?”

 

“No, nothing’s wrong,” she said. Linda leaned around the kitchen door to see if either of her parents were around the corner and could hear her. They were going to ask questions regardless, because her father had definitely heard the phone ringing, and he would be curious. No one was there. Linda sat back up on the counter. “I want to do what you’re doing. Hunting monsters, getting rid of spirits. I can’t just stay here, because my only options here are to be a preacher’s wife or be a teacher married to some business man who’s going to drag me off to the suburbs of Houston. I don’t want that. I want to fight back.”

 

“I’m in Oklahoma now. It’s a small town called Ames, and it’s north of Oklahoma City,” Jon said. “So if you can get there, we can talk about working together. It’d be nice to have someone covering my back when I’m summoning vengeful spirits and trying not to die.”

 

“I’ll see what I can do,” Linda said. She hung up the phone and headed towards her room at the back of her house, careful to avoid her father’s office. She could come up with a lie for him later. She had to pack her things up now, so that she could leave at night, once everyone was asleep. 

 

Her parents had gotten her a car instead of helping her pay for college tuition, and so Linda didn’t get to go to college. She’d wanted to, but they said that she wouldn’t enjoy it once she got there. Too many boys, or something like that. She’d be distracted. 

 

Linda had only been distracted by one boy in her life. His name was Jon Walker, and he was a professional witch. She wasn’t in love with him, but she was in love with what he did, and she wanted to do that with her future. 

 

* * *

 

Her parents caught her as she was loading up the trunk of her car. Linda wasn’t surprised, because they caught everything, but she was still upset. She’d wanted to get away without having to do this, because it was an insult to both herself and to Jon. 

 

“Where exactly do you think you’re going, miss?” Her father said. He was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, arms crossed over his chest, and wearing a faded t-shirt that advertised a church event from when Linda had been a child. “It’s the middle of the night, and you were calling someone earlier, so don’t try and lie to me.”

 

Linda straightened up and looked her father in the eyes. “I’m eloping, dad. He’s a Catholic, and I know you don’t like Catholics because they drink and listen to music, but he’s a good man and I’m in love with him.”

 

“You can’t leave,” her mother said. Linda couldn’t tell if she was angry or if she was begging her daughter to stay. “Tell your boy to come here, and you two can get married by your father. Linda, please.”

 

“Sorry, mom,” Linda said. The garage door was already open. She closed the trunk and walked around to the driver’s side of the car, opening up the door and putting one leg inside the car. “But I have to do this. It’s what I was meant to do with my life. It’s my calling.”

 

She got into the car and drove off into the night, not looking in the rearview mirror until she got onto the highway. There was a map in the passenger seat, a wad of saved up Christmas money in the cupholders, and the cassette Jon had left her in the stereo. Linda turned up the volume and hit the gas. She was going to Oklahoma. 

 

* * *

 

Linda arrived in Ames, Oklahoma at six in the morning. It was empty, and for a moment, she was afraid that she’d gone to the wrong place or that Jon had lied to her about where he was because he didn’t want anything to do with her. She parked her car in front of a small diner, where the lights were starting to flicker on, and took a deep breath. 

 

Even if Jon wasn’t here, it was a little too late to turn back. She could figure this out on her own. She wasn’t the same scared seventeen year old girl anymore. Linda had proved her own worth. 

 

She got out of the car, putting her money into her purse, and headed into the diner. A bell rang over her head as she came in, and the scraggly, grey haired man behind the counter looked up at her. He offered her a broad smile, showing off his missing teeth, and Linda smiled nervously back. She walked up to the counter, hoping she didn’t look as nervous as she felt. “Good morning, sir.”

 

“Morning, miss,” the man said. His accent was even thicker than hers. “You’re here bright and early. What can I get you?”

 

“Eggs and toast would be nice, but what I’m really interested in is some information,” she said. “Do you know if a guy named Jon Walker has been here recently? He’s around my age, brown hair, kind of stocky?”

 

“Oh, Jonny?” The man’s face brightened. “Yeah, he’s been staying up at Cass’s place, down on Woods Street. We were having some, uh,  _ animal problems _ ,” he meant werewolves; Linda wasn’t ignorant, “and he’s been a real help. Said he was hanging around for a few more days since he was waiting for his fiancee to arrive. Are you her?”

 

Strangely enough, she and Jon had gone with the same cover story. She smiled, and nodded as energetically as she could, having driven through the whole night. “That’s me! I would have come up earlier, but I had a few loose ends to tie up back home. I’ve missed him, but he loves his job and I can’t take him from that.”

 

The man smiled and shook his head fondly. “Ah, young love. I wish you two the best, and I’ll get my son right on your breakfast. He’s the cook here, and a damn good one.”

 

* * *

 

Cass’s place, where Jon was staying while he dealt with the werewolf infestation, was a little bed and breakfast a few blocks from the diner. Jon had a room with a double bed to himself, and he let Linda sleep there for a few hours while he worked on finishing up the werewolf stuff. The infestation wasn’t much, but Ames had only 200 people in it, so it seemed like a big deal. 

 

Linda had no idea how Jon found all of these supernatural incidents. When he got back, she’d ask him about it.

 

He came back with food, which consisted of two Reubens and two bottles of Coca-Cola. He handed one of each to Linda and then joined her on the bed, even though there was a little table and chairs in the corner of the room. Jon popped open his Coke. “I forgot how resilient you were. You drove up here over night. Jesus.”

 

“I really didn’t want to stick around in Dayton,” Linda said, picking up her Reuben and taking a large bite from it. It was pretty good. “My parents were starting to ask me when I was getting married.”

 

“Aren’t you barely eighteen?” Jon frowned. 

 

“I turn nineteen in February,” Linda countered. It was October, and starting to get cold. She’d never been away from Dayton before, because her father only took her brothers on missions, and her parents never travelled. Their whole family lived in Dayton. Her father’s father was the head pastor of their church. She sighed. “No one in my family does stuff like this.”

 

“Like what?”

 

“Run away,” Linda said. “Pursue passions outside of religion or Dayton.”

 

“Someone has to break the mold,” Jon said. 

 

Linda nodded. She knew he was trying to be supportive. “What if I’m making a mistake? What if I’m not any better than them, and I just think I am?”

 

“Linda, you saw your friend get possessed and instead of breaking down and crying--and probably getting yourself and all your other friends killed--you grabbed her and strapped her into a car and drove her all the way to Houston to try and find a priest,” Jon said. “If anyone is meant for this kind of thing, for putting your life on the line and having to go in blind half the time, it’s you. You’re something else.”

 

“Aww, thanks,” Linda said sarcastically, but she really did appreciate the praise. 

Jon shrugged, and took a drink from his Coke. “It’s what I’m here for. Moral support and occult knowledge.”

 

“Speaking of which,” Linda said, and put down her sandwich. “How do you find these cases? It’s not like people are out there advertising that they’ve got werewolf infestations or possessed friends.”

 

“You know the number you called?” Jon said. “That’s not mine. I’m part of a bigger project, which is basically a bunch of witches, ex-priests, and monster hunters who’ve figured out this whole national system. It’s complicated, but basically, I wait for people to call me about an issue, and then I go there, and work odd jobs between hunts.”

 

“Sounds… not as interesting as I expected,” Linda said.

 

“You wanna go back to Texas?” Jon offered, raising an eyebrow. 

 

Linda shook her head. “Absolutely not.”

 

“Then I guess we’re stuck with each other,” Jon said. He pulled out a notebook and flipped through it. “What’s your opinion on a haunted house in Marceline, Missouri?”

 

“Sounds fun,” Linda said. “I’ve never been to Missouri, though.”

 

“Well, now you’ll get to,” Jon said. “That’s my next job.”

 

“Our next job,” Linda corrected him. 

 

“Right,” Jon said. “Also, are you cool with me using your car? Mine broke down about 30 miles south of here, and it was a pain in the ass getting all of my stuff moved around. I can’t really hitch-hike across the country with a bunch of weapons, and since we’re already working together, it would just make sense to be in the same car.”

 

“I’m fine with that,” Linda said. “I don’t have a lot of stuff with me, anyway. Just some books and clothes, and a rosary I took from a church.”

 

Jon stared at her. “You stole a rosary?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

He shook his head. “You’re something else, Ignarro.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, and please leave a comment/kudos if you enjoyed it!


End file.
